July Spending

Yikes. For the first time in a while, I'm actually looking at what I'm spending versus what I earn. I usually spend less than I earn, because I have some leftover cash to toss into savings most months, but if I don't have much left over, I don't stress about it because I've got some hefty savings in place already. Now that I'm blogging about how I spend and save money, I would be remiss not to give my expenditures a good, hard look so that someday soon I can properly assess my spending categories and start to... gulp... budget.

I spent the last hour or so scouring my credit card and bank statements to analyze all of the money in and out, and here is what I've come up with:

MONEY EARNED: $4166 (after 401k, FSA, health insurance, gym membership, taxes, etc. This is what is direct-deposited into my savings account each month)

MONEY SPENT: $4,203 Oops.

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BREAKDOWN: (In alphabetical order)

Beauty: $124- highlights, including tip. Ouch :( The roots were looking pretty bad, I had no choice. But no mani/pedis this month, even though I really needed one before my trip to Vegas!

Cash: $300- ATM withdrawals for items not listed below, to pay for lunches and all the taxis I paid for with cash in Vegas

Charity: $50- colleague's Swim Across America event

Dining out: $165- includes drinks I bought in Vegas. This is considerably less than what I actually spend eating out in NYC, considering that client entertainment dinners are company-expensed.

Drugstore/household: $120

Entertainment: $84- two D.C. United Tickets

Furniture: $420- to buy my roommate out of her share of the stuff we bought together

Gifts: $141- my two best friends have birthdays in July, don't expect this expense next month

Groceries: $61- I stocked up on canned goods on sale. I love canned green beans! Ha.

Rent + Utilities: $1507- $1375 rent, half of $165 for cable and $99 for electricity

Travel/Lodging: $1025- not surprising. I acknowledged from the beginning that this would be my biggest expense category. Items this month include: various taxis (including the $5 taxi I take to work every day), transportation to/from airports (I always take public transportation, but the trains to the airports are still $15 or so each way), hotel at MGM Grand in Vegas, return flight from San Fran for the wedding this fall, two Virgin America flights to Vegas in December, train ticket from NYC to DC (return ticket was free via Amtrak Guest Reward points)

Wedding related: $108- down payment on limo for bachelorette party, but will be paid back by other attendants for part of the cost



This breakdown doesn't include the things I paid for in advance of this month, such as prepaid reunion costs (flights, show tickets, dinner, etc.). But I also paid for travel this month that I won't be taking until later this year. Since I don't have any new trips on the horizon (yet... those are dangerous words), I might not have any plane tickets to buy next month. Watch me eat these words later. Other one-time costs include the furniture buy-out and the birthday gifts for my two best friends. There are no August birthdays in my family, that I know of...

Next month I expect (money in) - (money out) to be a positive number, not just because I will be conscious of spending less, but my paycheck will get a boost! The 20% raise from my promotion will be effective (YEAH!!!), and I will max out my 401k with my bonus, so no more paycheck deductions. And at the end of August, I will have maxed out my social security tax- another boost to look forward to!

Weekend Spending

If you haven't read my intro yet, you will soon learn that I travel, a lot. Therefore, my weekend spending stats will usually be a bit high, as I don't have access to the "free" food and amenities in my apartment.

Beginning with Friday night:

*Gift purchased for best friend's birthday: $76

*Tickets to Billy Joel's Shea Stadium closing concert: FREE!
(They were a gift!! An amazing gift, and we got to see Paul McCartney sneak onto the stage for the encore!! Paul performed at the first ever show at Shea with the Beatles, and so it was only fitting that he appear at the last)

*LIRR tickets to/from Shea, two beers, and a water: BF ("B") paid, probably $35

*Cab from Penn to my apt. at 1am: $15 w/tip

Saturday:

*Cab BACK to Penn at 6:30am: $15 w/tip

*Two AMTRAK train tickets to Washington D.C.: $168

*Two Krispy Kreme donuts and a water at Penn Station (my favorite thing about taking morning trains) : $4

*Two 1-day passes on the D.C. Metro: $15.60

*Lunch: FREE thanks to my best friend and her fiance, who packed us lunches

*Admission to National Archives and Portrait Gallery Museums: FREE!

*Dinner at Mexican tapas-style restaurant including two beers, for two, w/tip: $62
(On a side note, you'll be happy to know that one of our friends took the time to figure out the bill for seven people, rather than split it seven ways. Even though I may have had more than my fair share of guac ;) See J. Money's post on splitting checks- I got lucky, even though the check-tackler spent 15 minutes determining everyone's share)

*Two tickets to D.C. United soccer game: $84

*Drinks at the United game: $6.50 for my beer, and who knows how many B had.

Sunday:
*Newly acquired Costco card: FREE w/Dad's Business Membership (the most exciting acquisition of the weekend!!!! I love COSTCO!!!)

*Flintstones Vitamins and Neutrogena Sunscreen at Costco: $26

*North Face tight-rolling, low-temperature sleeping bag for the camping trips B wants to take, and small sleeping pad: FREE! w/ Dad's Bass Pro credit card reward points. Retail: $125

*Three tickets to watch the Baltimore Orioles lose to the Tigers: FREE w/ Dad's season tickets

*Crabcake, diet coke, and water at the stadium: $20.75 (They serve crabcakes at Camden Yards now!! I'm also in trouble b/c I didn't share it with B, oops)

*Two AMTRAK tickets back to NYC: FREE w/the reward points from my Amtrak Mastercard (~$200 value)

*Chinese take-out for two upon getting home: $32

Yikes. Including travel (half of which was free!) and not including the free items I got at Bass Pro and the Oriole's tix compliments of my dad, the two of us, together, spent over $500. No wonder my savings account is growing so slowly. But, I insist on traveling to be with the people I love (I was primarily visiting my two best friends who both had birthdays this past week).

A few notes on some of the expenditures:

I usually take the subway to reasonable destinations from my apartment, but if it's really late at night or super early in the morning, I usually splurge on a cab to be safe, and to save precious sleep time. I live a good 8-10 minute walk from the subway, so when you add in the time spent waiting for trains or transfers, I can easily save 30-40 minutes by spending $10. I tend to value the cost of my time, since I work such long hours and don't have too much time for myself in the first place.

Bass Pro: my dad's obsession... has been paying off for me lately, too. My dad has a Bass Pro credit card, and he uses it to make many of the purchases he needs for his office, which is sometimes upward of $100k for fancy equipment. I think he earns 1% towards purchases at the store (and 4% on purchases made IN the store), which translates to thousands of dollars in credit at Bass Pro. I think he's saving up for a boat or some other pricey purchase, but it's going to take him a while if he keeps taking me there to go shopping! He is very generous with his points and I think it makes him happy when I find something there that I need. On my last trip I got a pair of hard-soled hiking boots that I really needed, an air mattress w/ portable pump, and some North Face hiking pants... FREE! And then just yesterday I scored the sleeping bag I would need to go hiking/camping at Lake Placid later this summer. Every year he takes me there onChristmas Eve and basically tells me to get whatever I want... haha... and that's about all I'll get. At least he's found a reward program that works for him.

Speaking of reward programs, B and I were able to travel from Baltimore to New York for free because of all my spending on my Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard. I also have a Discover Card that I like to use for 5% cash-back categories, but I think I get great bang for my buck earning Amtrak tickets, because they're not cheap!

*Average cost of my Amtrak tickets: $100 (usually purchased last minute)
*Dollars spent to earn the ticket: $3000 (translates into 3,000 points, plus I earn some extra points by shopping online through their website)
*Approximate return on spending: 3.3%! Score! Now I don't feel bad about waiting until the last minute to get tickets.

I've found it really hard lately to use the flight rewards I've earned directly from the airlines (as opposed to earning them on a credit card). For example, I took advantage of some Jet Blue promotions and I fly them a lot in general, so I've earned a few free tickets, but while planning my trip to San Francisco for a wedding, I discovered that they are not as easy to use as they used to be. Thus, I'm happy with my Amtrak rewards because they're straightforward and easy to redeem, even though there are some holiday black-outs.

I'm curious- what credit card reward programs do YOU find useful? Do you stick with cash back?